Yi-Shun Teoh – Trainee As a trainee assigned to the Bharti deal, I was given a lot of responsibility and really felt I was making a valued contribution. I met the client and headed out to Amsterdam to help complete the deal. I was proud to be able to support the team on such a landmark corporate transaction and it was a tremendous experience.

Bharti Airtel’s US$10.7 billion acquisition of Zain Africa was the largest overseas investment in an emerging market by an Indian corporation. Our work underlined Herbert Smith’s reputation for handling groundbreaking India-related transactions. As a result of this acquisition, Bharti Airtel

became the fifth-largest mobile operator in the world. The Herbert Smith team adopted a truly cross-practice and multi-jurisdictional approach. Working with our Alliance firm Stibbe and the client’s Indian legal advisers, AZB Partners, we secured a successful conclusion to this transaction. The Bharti project is the latest in a long

line of high-profile Indian mandates for Herbert Smith. Together with Tata Steel’s US$13 billion acquisition of Corus, the firm has now advised on the two largest-ever overseas investments by an Indian company. Our reputation for advising on high-value

M&A transactions was recognised in mergermarket’s H1 2010 league tables. We were ranked top by value in each of the Asia Pacific, Africa and Middle East tables.